Plain Grey

Friends, in case you were worried that Mr. would never get his plain grey after the peace fleece sleight-of-hand, rest assured. But instead of getting another large stash of peace fleece, Rose at Friends of Wool here casually introduced me to Marr Haven, a soft and — not slubby, what is it? — bumpy. It’s got these bumps that are not slubs and not boucle… and not uneven… just nice little cottontails… everywhere all at once. Anyway. It’s undyed, kindly treated, locally grown and spun, from a farm just down the road from me…. and it comes in a few greys including this one, which is not at all plain. But Don’t Tell Mr. He thinks he’s getting a plain grey sweater! Shhhh!

And it LOOKS as if I’ve started Jared’s wonderful sweater from IK, but not. Much as I love it, I’m not sure actually it’s plain enough. This is sort of Beth Brown-Reinsel inspired, but 98% Zimmerman EPS, saddle-shoulder finish. Which one I don’t know… The only mystery to be solved… can I resist some purl patterning in this baby? Up around gansey height?

The plus side of a perfectly plain sweater at this gauge is that I can knit this in the dark, while watching movies with subtitles (Pan’s Labyrinth last night while knitting most of what you see here — YIPES. Some of the most haunting violence I’ve ever seen). The downside of this sweater is that I’m knitting two sweaters on size 10 needles. I really don’t like size 10 needles. Size 8’s are my limit. But I prefer 6 and below. (I’m talking US sizes here…)

So then, casting on this…

…despite already having many, many projects started and unfinished, is not a matter of disease. It’s not. It’s really just an antidote. It’s a sampler that will be a child’s vest, to try out Fair Isle knitting, to see what I think of it (I think I know what I think, heh, heh, drool, slobber) before investing in a whole separate stash of Jamieson’s. I have found a knitter to stalk to inspire me in this new illness. Lovely, huh? That is Marina at Stranded on Fair Isle. Met her at Ravelry. Meeting amazing people at Ravelry. It’s a big, beautiful world, the knitting and crochet universe.

Also it’s a small world. Yesterday my issue of Interweave Knits, Fall 2007 arrived. Eunny Jang, the new editor and her crew have done a really stunning job of preserving what we’ve all loved about that spectacular magazine while bringing in what all the digit-heads and traditional knitters love about it. It’s got knitting for newbies and knitting for geeks and knitting for bulky wool people and knitting for color freaks. It’s got all of it. All of it. And it blends, blends, blends the community. If you haven’t been subscribing… why not? Okay then, run to get your copy from your LYS. It’s good to have and own the first issue from a new editor. Congrats, Eunny. Amazing.

And there, in the article about organic/green knitting? My Marr Haven yarn. Right there. Perfect.